Chapter Text
°•* PROLOGUE °•*:
How much anguish must one endure before they descend to madness?
The query is conceived from anguish of his own.
It provides a dull moment of clarity as he comes to realize the answer needn't be sought out: he’s long been lost to madness.
Perhaps it was preordained: being born in a setting such as his where love is cold, and detestation is all there is.
It was only a matter of time before hatred would start a spark, and only a mere matter of moments before that spark would grow to be an insatiable inferno.
Amidst the creation of it lay him, wildly thrashing and writhing as his unwavering pain persisted.
It coursed through his body like wildfire, slithering beneath his skin tainting his veins a vivid black.
Much like the ring of fire he'd been condemned to, it greedily ate away at him from the inside out as though he were dried twigs.
He let out a guttural howl of affliction as he began to convulse.
With vines of black beneath his skin, his trembling hands rose to pull at his pale hair in a futile attempt of stability.
Smoke clogged his throat, his screams coming out strenuous.
His vision blurred with the color of flames as his body reached its limit, overrun with coils of ebony.
His shouts of eternal pain faded in his sore throat, nothing but a raspy-yet desperate-gasp emanating.
He lay there in languish, cloaked figures with eyes rid of pity watching him receive redemption from beyond the flames.
Among them, an entity draped in red, lips curled with sadistic satisfaction.
END OF PROLOGUE